As usual, super uber busy, but stuff is still going really radly here. Right now we're just pushing to get all the pig infastructure in place before the pigs themselves get here later this week. We are almost done building a little a-frame pig house (on skids, so it can be moved around). Devin and I built the floor together, then I did the framing myself (first time working on that kind of thing, and it was a lot of fun) and he has done all the wood siding, and I got the plywood nailed on the roof. We just need to tarpaper the roof and tow it into the field for now, then in the fall when we have a bit more time we're going to make cedar shingles to fancy up the roofing. You can see a bit of the house in the photo above, but I will post a real picture of it when it's done and looking a bit better.
Yesterday we rented a gas powered auger from Devin's work and got all the holes for the pig fencing dug and the fence posts in. Gas powered augers go like the proverbial hot damn, as long as you don't hit any rocks. The first five holes we dug were hugely mega rocky which was discouraging, but a rich source of terrifying crunchy noises and epic auger flailing. The last ten we did were ridiculously easy and rock free, so that was pretty rad. I think it took longer to clear the rocks out of those few holes than to do all of the digging, but it's now done. We're going to string the fencing tomorry, and then I just need to build a gate and some feed containers in some of my copious amounts of spare time, and we are pretty much ready for the piggiess to get here.
Speaking of newly arrived animals, Judi's cows got here today and seem to be settling in well. I have already had to haul Gretchen out of their pasture four times today (which is extra impressive given that it was rainy and she opted to stay in the house much of the day). The first three times she was just in there eating goose shit, but the last time she started barking at the cows and running back and forth in front of them. When they didn't, y'know, just step on her or whatever, she became encouraged and stepped up the pace. She got them running to one of the corners, and ran back and forth barking to keep them in place. Eventually she got distracted by more shit to eat, so I was able to scoop her up and get her the hell outta there. Jerk.
We did our first farmer's market in Nelson last weekend. I gotta say, I absolutely love the valley we live in, but I think I hate Nelson with a deep and burning passion. There are just so many hippies. More than you would even imagine, and they're all so damn sincere about being stupid hippies. I can't exactly put my finger on what it is about them that pushes my buttons so much, but, man, Devin and I were both ready to have total freakouts by the end of the day. I think the markets will be posi for getting off the farm and taking a break from the hard physical work and stuff for a day, and I'm sure there will be rad people there, but I'm definitely gonna have to learn more tolerance for hippies (or at least more deep breathing and relaxation skills) to do them without my head exploding.
In more posi news, we are already eating chives, radishes and rhubarb from the garden! The taters are starting to come up, the spinach is almost ready to be thinned (and eaten!), the kale is up, the transplanted cukes, pumpkin, butternut squash, cabbage and brussel sprouts are all thriving, and there will be a buttload of corn and some broccoli and cauliflower transplanted in by the end of tomorry. So, yeah, stuff is really coming along, and it's cool to see so much in the way of results so quickly.
Oh, and it looks like we will almost for sures be in Van for a couple of days and Victoria for a day near the end of June. Iskra is playing a couple of shows, so Devin is going to do that, and I am tagging along to get some sweet bro downs in. So, coastal pals, we should totes hang out.
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